Dem Folks from 60 Years by Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra

The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra is more than a band to me. It is a school, a church, a passport and a way of life really. And the way that I know that is that I cannot actually picture my life without it. With the Arkestra, the influence is foundational, other ensembles don’t even compare. To play in the Arkestra reconfigures the way that you hear from a more transactional state where you’re expected to execute a task, to a way that's more conversational and malleable to the ebb and flow of the music and the audience. This has also influenced me as an educator and scholar. The exchange of information is more organic than what I had been conditioned to accept in academic institutions.

I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up the fact that above all else, the greatest influence on me has been the sense of identity that the Ark has provided me. As an Egyptian-American Muslim, it’s hard to know how everybody sees you. Egypt has such a conceptual identity, that it seems everyone you meet only knows what they’ve seen in the movies and they assert that warped view of history onto you no matter what you say. Participating in this Pan Afrikan art form has shown me the legacy of Egyptian symbology and what it means to all those that have roots to the African continent. By showing me my country's relevance to everyone else, the Ark has also shown its relevance to myself.

Guiding a conduction with the Arkestra is electric. The surrender that’s present in improvisation feels even more visceral as you’re facilitating the spontaneity with the ensemble directly, instead of dropping hints in the notes that you play. And much like sonic improvisation, there are many different schools of thought in conducted improvisation. I remember being introduced to conduction through Tyshawn Sorey, who was coming more from the Butch Morris, Anthony Braxton school of thought. During the rehearsals I was so surprised when I thought I was introducing something to the ensemble when in reality, Horace had been doing this with the Ark in his own manner for decades. Completely different style, but same technique. This confluence of perspectives and histories can be heard in the recording.

There's so much more to be said, but words don’t really feel like they do the job. In the end all I can express is gratitude to Horace Tapscott for the vision, for all the elders that I've learned from, and for Mekala Session for bringing me in in the first place. - Zekkeraya El-Magharbel

Taken from a concert at Zebulon in Los Angeles on August 11th, 2019